I went to one of the world's cultural heritage in Laos "Town of Luang Prabang" (3/2014)

According to the textbook of World heritage official examination in Japan,

  Luang Prabang in the north of Laos is the town that developed as the town of Lang Xang kingdom which was the first united nation of Laos in the mid of 14th century. The first king, Fa Ngum, who regarded Theravada as the official religion invited a lot of high priests and collected golden buddha statue "Prabang" and a lot of scriptures all from Angkor. After that, "Prabang" became a symbol of Lang Xang kingdom and responsible for the location name.
  The major remains in this town is Wat Xienthong constructed in 14th century. The main hall has many-layered roof called Luang Prabang design.

"Town of Luang Prabang" was registered as world's cultural heritage in 1995.

 
How to get there
You can go by road or air to the town.
By road, you can take a local bus, etc. from Vientiane of Laos or other cities of adjacent countries. A cost differs depending on a type of bus or where you go from.
If you go by air, you can take a flight from Vientiane of Laos as a domestic flight or other cities of countries around Laos as an international flight.
If you take a domestic flight, you can go with Lao Air carrier.
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Like this.
A flight is about one hour or so, but I felt a little nervous because the carrier was small.
Depending on the season, but it cost about around 100USD.


You cannot miss the scene of lining mendicants
It took about one hour to get to Luang Prabang from Vientiane.
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I got arrived at the airport.
To get to the center of the town, you can go by a car or Song thaew and it takes about 5 mins.
Mendicants come in an early morning. So until then I decided to look around night market, etc.
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Night market was full of tourists and people living here.
You can get a variety of souvenirs such as silk, coffee, etc.
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If you walk a little from the night market, you can find many-layered temple lit up in the darkness.
At this night, I stayed at a hotel near night market.

The next morning.
I got out of the hotel before 6 am because the mendicants come at around 6 am.
Although it was still a little dark outside, there were already some people waking towards the same direction as me.
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By the time the sun came up, there were a lot of people there (especially, a lot of Korean people who came up by a bus), lining mendicants were coming out from the street corner. Along the road, people are sitting on the ground to wait to make an offering to mendicants.
Around the period of mendicants coming out, there are a lot of local people who are selling offering stuff to tourists, but you don't have to buy it. If you want to make an offering, you can buy some.

A lot of mendicants are lining up around this spot. it may be because there are way a lot ot touris here.
They were passing taking about 10 mins.
I left here soon because I had to take a flight back to Vientiane. On the way to the airport, I could still see some mendicants at a lot of places.


Location of world heritage